


The Black Fairy

by hfanjoy1



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, I hurt him alot but he is fine, Posted on here after my sister bugged me to move it to ao3 to make it easier to read, Wrote this a long time ago so not as good as my usual writing, Zeref joins Fairytail
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24288655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hfanjoy1/pseuds/hfanjoy1
Summary: What if at the end of Fairy Tail, Zeref survived, but with his curse being removed. This is a series of oneshots based around this topic. Some will be funny. Some will be fluffy. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the most evil, and cutest villain in Earthland.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia, Zeref Dragneel/Mavis Vermillion
Kudos: 25





	1. Welcome to Fairytail, Zeref Dragneel!

In the infirmary of Fairytail’s guild hall, the infamous Black Mage sleeps. Nastu, the brother of the mage, sits idly by, waiting for the day that the mage wakes up. He hears the door to the infirmary creak open, as the famous Titania enters.

“Here again Natsu? I figured you would be home with Happy by now, Its almost 11:00pm”

“I sent Happy home without me. I..just.. needed some time alone, y’know?”

“Of course, would you like me to leave Natsu?” Erza asks

“Nah it’s fine, it was getting pretty boring anyways!” Natsu says with a smile, though even Happy would be able to tell the strain put into it. Erza accepts the invitation and pulls a chair out of nowhere, and sets it by the edge of the bed, on the same side as Natsu.

“Do you just keep chairs with you all the time?” Although his face shows confusion, he really isn’t surprised by the items Erza chooses to keep in her Requip dimension.

“Why of course, you never know when you might need a chair or 2” Erza takes her seat and the two mages sit in silence for a few minutes until Natsu speaks up.

“Don’t you think he should’ve woken up by now? Its been 2 months since…”

“Honestly, Natsu, I don’t know. Its possible that when his curse was lifted, it left him in this state. Porlyusica confirmed that he will wake up, sadly there’s no knowing when that will be”

“Yeah” Natsu sighed and laid back in his chair. “Well I should get back to happy, cya Erza” Natsu began to get up, but paused as the red head spoke again.

“Oh Natsu, I actually came here to let you know that we will be going on a job requested specifically for Team Natsu later in the week”.

“Alright I’ll see you at the guild then” With that Natsu turned and left the infirmary.

**_2 Weeks Later_ **

Makarov, Fairytail’s guild master, is sitting down at his desk, answering apology letters for damage done to cities, when someone knocks on his door.

“Come in” He says. The door creaks open to reveal the guilds resident barmaid, Mirajane.

“Master! He’s awake. Zeref is finally awake!” Makarov’s eyes bulge out of his sockets.

“Really? Have you spoken to him?”

“No, I came to get you right away” Makarov suddenly leap out of his chair towards the door and headed off down to the infirmary, while Mira followed him quickly. When he got to the infirmary door, he opened it slowly, being carful not to startle the mage.

The Black mage was confused when he first woke up. He opened his eyes and the first thing he sees is a girl with a startled face, who then rushed out of the room like her life depended on it, not that it didn’t, his curse could act up any time after all.

The door then opened again a few minutes later. He looked over and saw Fairytail’s guild master walking over. He did a double take around the room, and realized he was in an infirmary. Fairytail’s, to be specific.

“So, your finally awake huh, Zeref” Makarov said with an intimidating look. Zeref had a look of panic in his eyes. He couldn’t feel his death magic, and he was too drained to use any other kinds of spells. Makarov sensed his fear, and smiled at Zeref. ”Relax, we aren’t going to hurt you, you’ve obviously been through a lot”.

At this Zeref relaxed, but he was still confused as to why he was here in the first place. Then, it was like the old man had read his mind and he spoke again.

“You must be wondering why you’re here. Well, Fairytail is known for giving their enemies a second chance, and that’s precisely what were going to do with you.” It took a minute for Zeref to process this information, but when he did, his eyes opened as wide as they could go and he said, in a raspy voice from not using for 2 months,

“Y-You’re saying you want me to join Fairytail?!” The master nodded his head and Zeref calmed down a bit before realizing something. “Wait a minute, shouldn’t I be dead?”.

“You should be”, Mira came in and joined the conversation, “but Natsu wanted you to stay alive, saying that you should get a second chance. Needless to say everyone, save for a few people, agreed. Funnily enough most of our enemies-turned friends were the first ones to get on board”.

“Oh…That’s nice, but to go as far as letting me join you? Especially with my curse, it could act up at any moment.” Zeref’s face showed guilt, more or less telling Makarov that even he thought that was going to far.

“Your curse is gone Zeref” Zeref was shocked to hear this, and wanted to ask something, but Makarov cut him off. ”I will explain later, but so you know, Fairytail’s doors are open to everyone, friend or foe. In fact, a good amount of our newest members were all enemies at some point” Makarov said. He hopped up on a stool, so he could be eye level with Zeref, and proceeded to hold out his hand.

“So, Zeref, do you accept our invitation to you? Will you take our hand and allow us to pull you back into the light?” Zeref took his hand. That one action told Makarov everything he needed to know.

“Welcome to Fairytail, Zeref Dragneel.”

**_With Team Natsu_ **

“Ugh! Why is this job taking so damn long!” Natsu complained. The team of mages had taken a job that included beating a dark guild, but ran in to some… inconveniences.

“You expected us to know this dark guild had multiple bases!” Gray yelled to Natsu from somewhere in the battle. Team Natsu was currently in the fifth, and last of the bases owned by Dancing Thorn, a dark guild that’s been making a name for itself throughout the west side of Fiore.

“Quit fighting you two, or you’ll be my swords next target!” Erza yelled from above them. She was using her Heaven’s Wheel armor, and was taking out mages by the dozen.

“I’ll just take them out all at once then! FIRE DRAGONS ROOOOAAAR!!!” Natsu was getting fed up with this, and just wanted to get back to the guild.

“Done singe us while your at it!” Lucy shouted, as she was extremely close to getting hit by the flames. All of the dark mages were knocked unconscious, and were currently being tied up by Erza, so they could be apprehended once the magic council arrived. Suddenly, Erza’s communication lacrima started glowing.

“Hey Gray, finish tying up these fools, Mira is contacting me” Erza said. She threw Gray the rope she had and fished the lacrima out of her pocket. “Hello, Mira, has something happened at the guild?”

“Yes actually, something has happened. You guys need to get back to the guild as soon as possible. Zeref woke up a few minutes ago and we’re going to make the announcement that he’s joined Fairytail when you get back!” Erza was shocked to hear this news. One, that Zeref was finally awake, and two, that he accepted to join Fairytail.

“Did you just say Zeref woke up!” Natsu shouted and ran over to the requip mage.

“Huh?” The rest of the team looked towards Natsu and Erza, all with shocked faces.

“Yeah he woke up a few minutes ago. Makarov is helping him get his bearings and then we’re going to make him a member of Fairytail in front of the whole guild” Mira told them. Everyone’s shocked faces slowly turned into smiles.

“Thank you for informing us Mira. We will return to the guild immediately. Come everyone, the magic council can deal with the rest here!” Erza shouted. Team Natsu made it back to Fairytail in record time (Erza may or may not have threatened the conductor of the train to go faster than usual), and went strait to the infirmary in order to help Zeref get ready for his introduction.

**_In The Infirmary_ **

Makarov was explaining to Zeref about the side effects of his curse being broken.

“So Zeref, you need to ensure that you remember, you cannot use your death magic anymore. It was taken away with the curse. You can still use your other magic of course, but if you find yourself in a bad situation remember that you can always get out of it the way your used to”.

“Yes I am aware, the problem is that I don’t really have any other main magic that I use to fight. I have fire magic of course, but that’s really the only other damaging magic I have. I also haven’t trained in it much, so its not very useful”. Zeref’s face had a sad look on it, and Makarov could tell he was worried of what people may think of him.

“Don’t worry Zeref, I’m sure you’ll find the right magic suited for you” Makarov tried to comfort him, as best as you could comfort a 400+ year old ex-evil wizard. “Also you will now continue to age, though this side effect I’m sure you were hoping for” At this statement, the infirmary door slammed open, and Team Natsu walked in.

“Zeref you’re finally awake!” Natsu yelled. Luckily the infirmary was sound proof, or the entire guild would have heard the news, and not have had it been a surprise.

“Natsu?” Zeref said softly. He was sitting up, resting against the back of the bed, with his arms crossed in front of him, having previously been paying attention to Makarov who was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Hey bro! You really had us worried there for a bit. You were asleep for like a year!”

“It was only 2 months Natsu, not a year” Happy said. He flew over to the bed and sat along the head board.

“Yeah, whatever, doesn’t matter how long he’s been out for because he’s awake now!”

“Speaking of being awake, don’t you think it’s about time we announced the news to the guild” Erza said.

“Yes, I believe it is. Although I do need to be sure. Are you ready to meet the guild Zeref?” Makarov asked. He could tell Zeref was nervous as he thought it over for a minute, but eventually nodded his head. Smiles spread out across the room as Natsu helped Zeref get out of bed.

Makarov hopped off the bed and trotted over to the door. He exited and made his way to the balcony of the guild hall. The rest of team Natsu were right behind him, this time including Zeref. They all stood near the edge of the balcony, hiding Zeref from view of course, as Makarov glanced back at them, giving the signal that he was about to begin.

“Alright listen up brats, I have an important announcement!”

**_In The Guild, 2 minutes earlier_ **

The rest of the guild members could see Team Natsu quickly make their way into the guild hall, and towards the back. A few tried to greet them, mentioning they were back a little early than they thought they would be, but were ultimately ignored as the team made there way to the infirmary like their lives depended on it.

“I wonder what’s up with them” Levy said. She had wanted to talk to Lucy about a new book that she read, but decided to wait until later, given the determination they had to get to their destination.

“Juvia certainly hopes there is nothing wrong, especially with her Gray-sama” Juvia’s face showed worry.

“Well whatever it is, it seemed serious” Laxus said. “They were going strait to the infirmary” The Thunder Legion, who was standing with him, nodded at his statement.

The guild continued to chat about what they think could have happened, when they heard the guild master from up on the balcony.

“Alright listen up brats, I have an important announcement!” Makarov shouted. Everyone went silent and listen to him, thinking it could be about what was going on with Team Natsu, who was standing behind him. “As you all know we have had a guest resting in our infirmary for the last 2 months!” At this the guild nodded, a few understanding where this was going.

“Well, he has finally awoken, and has accepted to join us! He will become a part of our family, therefore a part of our daily lives, from this day onward! Everyone, feel pleased to meet the newest member of Fairytail, Zeref Dragneel!”

Zeref walked out from behind the mages. The guild all had shocked faces, which eventually turned into smiles, and cheering. If you looked closely, you could see the few tears, as well as the smile on Zeref’s face from finally being accepted.

The guild then proceeded to have a party afterwards, congratulating Zeref on waking up, and being a part of the family. A few people were on edge at first, namely Gray, for obvious reasons, but eventually warmed up to him and were happy that he was there.

Once the party died down, and only a few people remained, Team Natsu decided to call it a night, and were somehow able to convince Lucy to let them stay in her apartment for the night, claiming that they should have a sleep over to continue to celebrate Zeref’s first night as a Fair Tail mage. They were on their way to her place when the silence was broken.

“Where are you gonna live anyway Zeref?” Lucy thought to ask.

“My place of course!” Natsu yelled, loudly for the middle of the night, I might add.

“Hell No!” Lucy shouted in Natsu’s face. “You don’t even sleep in your own house. You’ll probably end up dragging him to my place every night!”

“Actually, at the moment, living space shouldn’t be a problem. Master Makarov offered me one of the spare rooms in the guild” Zeref spoke up

“Oh, well I guess that works out then” Lucy said. She was secretly happy that she didn’t have to share her apartment with two people, but would still let him stay there if he didn’t have anywhere to go of course.

The team reached her house and made them selves at home. A little too “at home” for Lucy’s preference, but she was used to it by now. Everyone soon got ready for bed, the entire day being exhausting, for more than one reason, and congratulated Zeref once more on his new status. Not as the Black Mage Zeref, but as the newest member of Fairytail.


	2. Does Age Matter?

It was only Zeref’s second day as a Fairy Tail member, but the guild wasn’t making it hard for him to see what it was like on a daily basis. At the moment, a brawl was going on around the guild. Zeref, Lucy, and Happy were all hiding behind a flipped table, hoping they wouldn’t get hit by an out of control magic attack.

“So…is this a one-time thing, or does the guild always have brawls like this” Zeref asked.

“Sadly, they happen multiple times a day” Lucy answered. She was getting sick of all the fighting, and after not getting much sleep last night from all the snoring done by Natsu, she was extremely tired. “Why aren’t you out there anyway? I figured you would want to hang around Natsu”

“Despite what you may hear, I’m not much of a fighter myself” Zeref was expecting some sort of fight, but not one where dangerous attacks were flinging around the guild hall. Worst part is that Natsu seemed to be dead set on brawling with him, and Zeref was running out of non-broken obstacles to hide behind.

“GET OVER HERE ZEREF! I WANNA FIGHT YOU!” Even people from the other end of the town could hear Natsu’s screaming. Natsu started going ballistic from not being able to challenge his brother and started tearing up everything in the guild hall. Sadly, this included the table that the three were hiding behind.

“THERE YOU ARE, NOW FIGHT ME!” As Natsu was about to punch Zeref, Erza came to the black mage’s rescue.

“THAT’S ENOUGH” Erza grabbed Natsu by the collar and threw him across the room, into the wall. “I will not allow you to send our newest member to the hospital on only his second day”

“Y-Yes ma’am” Natsu was trembling on the floor, having just climbed back through the wall. Erza’s glare was so effective, almost everyone shut up. You could even see the resident ice mage trembling, even though the anger wasn’t directed towards him this time.

“Thanks, Erza” Mira walked up towards where Erza and Zeref were. “I’ve been waiting for everything to calm down. I actually needed to ask Zeref a few questions so that he could officially be recognized as a Fairy Tail mage. Once we have that information he can get his guild mark”

“Oh, alright then” Mira took out a clip board with multiple questions on it.

“So first up, we need to know what magic you use. I am aware that you have multiple kinds of magic at your disposal, but just choose one to be your official magic” she said.

“Um, I suppose we can just put in fire magic. It should be believable, given Natsu’s magic” Mira marked his answer down on her clip board.

“Alright, next, where is your official place of residence?”

“I assume it would just be the guild hall…” Mira marked that down as well and continued.

“Alright and lastly, we need to know your age. Most of the other personal information we already knew so I mark that down and were good!”

“Do you mean actual age or my physical age?”

“Um, I guess I’ll write down both” Mira looked a little confused since she wasn’t sure, but hopefully putting both down would work for the magic council.

“Ok, I’m actually 422” Zeref told Mira. She wrote it down and then looked back up at Zeref, signaling him to continue. “And physically I’m 15” At this, everyone’s mouths dropped open.

“…” No sound could be heard in the guild hall. You could hear a pin drop in the silence.

“WHAT!” Almost everyone shouted at the same time.

“Wait…so your saying I’m the older brother now!?” Natsu pointed at himself while he said this. A mischievous smile was on his face.

“Well…not really, but physically yes, your older now” Zeref confirmed the question almost everyone was asking in their heads.

“O-Okay then, I guess that wraps up my questions. I-if you would like, come with me and I’ll give you your guild mark” Mira told Zeref. She was shocked to hear that he was only 15. Yes, it was only physically, but still, to imagine the most powerful wizard of all time was a teenager. She marked down that last bit of surprising information.

She led Zeref over to the bar, where she could grab the stamp that places the guild marks.

“So, where do you want it?” Mira was now back to herself, smile and all. Apparently, nothing can ruin her mood.

“Ill take it on my right shoulder, same as Natsu” Zeref lifted the sleeve of the T-shirt he was wearing, and Mira placed the stamp on the exact same place as Natsu had his. The mark came out with a black color, and you could see that people all around were smiling.

“Well, there you go. I’ll go and input the information into our archives” Mira walked off, clipboard in hand, towards the back of the guild hall.

**_Along the Canal, Near Lucy’s Apartment_ **

The rest of the day continued relatively normal. Well, as normal as Natsu gloating about being a big brother is.

“HAHAHA! I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE YOUNGER THAN ME!”

“Natsu, he told you already” Lucy sighed at Natsu’s antics, and felt bad for Zeref, since the dragon slayer was yelling at him, right in his face. “ For the last time, he Is still older than you, 15 is just his physical age”

“Please stop yelling right in my face…” Anyone could see that Zeref was getting annoyed. Now most people were just watching because they wanted to see when he would snap, and what would happen if he did.

Unfortunately for Natsu, Zeref was slowly getting more agitated, and the group was currently walking to a café to get something to eat. They happened to be walking next to the river, and Natsu was on the edge of the water.

Zeref happened to notice this and thought of something. Anyone could see the mischievous glint in Zeref’s eyes as he got ready to carry out his new plan.

“Hey Natsu?”

“What is it YOUNGER brother?” Zeref may have felt a little bad for what he was about to do. Not anymore. As Natsu was busy teasing him, Zeref pushed him into the lake with all the strength he could muster…right onto a floating piece of driftwood.

“He-urp-hey why did you-urp- do that!” Natsu lost his spunk very quickly due to his motion sickness. Gray was trying to stifle a laugh while Erza just had a proud face. Lucy and Wendy were slightly worried, although they knew Natsu deserved it.

Now, unfortunately for Zeref, Natsu rolled off into the water. Now that the motion sickness didn’t affect him anymore, he felt the need for revenge. Zeref noticed this, and you could see the fear in his eyes. Natsu jumped up out of the water and landed behind Zeref, who was still next to the river from pushing in his brother.

Natsu gave Zeref a push into the frigid water below. His first mistake was not realizing the water was freezing cold. It was autumn, after all, but in his defense, he wasn’t really affected by the cold.

“Ah!” A splash, as well as a scream could be heard if you were anywhere nearby. The water was certainly deep, as Zeref wasn’t tall enough to stand from the bottom. This wouldn’t usually be a problem, the mage knew how to swim, but the freezing water was halting his movements.

“N-N-N-Nat-s-s-su, h-h-help p-p-p-please!” A panic suddenly flew over Natsu, just now realizing that his brother was in trouble. He was also the one who caused it. The rest of team Natsu had worried faces as the dragon slayer jumped back into the water and proceeded to drag out his brother.

Natsu activated his flames on a low level, and stood over Zeref, who was panting on the ground from his struggling, so that he could warm him up.

“I’m sorry” Anyone could see the guilt on Natsu’s face. He hurt one of his Nakama. His brother, no less. “Are you okay?” Zeref nodded. Erza came and placed a blanket from her requip dimension over him.

“Natsu, carry him for now. He is in no condition to walk. We will take him to Lucy’s apartment and get him into a hot bath” Erza was worried, but she had no time to dwell on it. A guild member was in trouble, no matter how small the trouble, and she would not allow herself to sit idly by.

“Do I get a say in this?” Lucy asked. She wasn’t given an answer and assumed that meant it was a no. Either way, she certainly would have allowed them to go to her place, given it was the closest home to the canal, and Zeref wasn’t looking so good.

**_Lucy’s Home_ **

The group made it to Lucy’s house and Natsu immediately headed for the bathroom. Gray followed him to ensure he didn’t boil his brother alive in a panic. About 15 minutes later, and a lot of yelling from Gray attempting to drill instructions into Natsu’s head, the three emerged from the washroom.

“Are you alright Zeref? I could use my magic on you if you would like” Wendy offered. Zeref smiled at her kindness. She reminded him of Mavis. **(Mavis will still play a few parts throughout this story, this is just for fluffiness)**

“No, I’m alright, thank you” Wendy went to sit back down onto Lucy’s bed and scooted over to make room for the mage to sit beside her. He accepted her invitation and took a seat. Natsu soon approached him.

“So… I know I was kind of the one to get you into that predicament, but I guess older brothers always protect their younger ones? Hehe” Natsu was half smiling, half grimacing. He could feel the glares of his team, including Zeref as well. Eventually Zeref relented though, seeing the guilt on Natsu’s face.

“Well, I’m glad to know my brother will protect me” Zeref lowered his gaze and gave off a tiny smile, which is not given by him often. “I don’t even see the point in all this anyway. Does age matter, honestly?” Before Natsu could answer, Gray came over and bumped into Natsu. A fight started, leaving Zeref silent at his brother’s antics.

“To Natsu? Yes, it does” Erza answered in Natsu’s place. “Natsu believes in protecting people. If he sees anyone as inferior to him, it causes him to be even more protective of that person. It’s not because he just thinks he’s better than everyone, but because he is scared that his enemies will go after the ones he cares about”

“Ah I see. So, me being younger makes him think that he needs to protect me from his past enemies. Still, why the gloating?” Zeref took on a confused look, honestly making him look cute to the eyes in the room.

“Ah, that’s just how Natsu is. He faces his problems by fighting them head on. He just wants you to know that he is there for you as a brother. He has believed those who are older should protect the ones that are still learning. By gloating about it, he thinks you will accept his protection” Erza doesn’t realize she’s going on a bit of a rant, but Zeref doesn’t mind.

“So, he thinks I will accept his protection because the more often he promotes it into my head that he’s older, the more likely I am to accept it. I find it heartwarming, really. He wants to protect me, and I plan on letting him” Erza nodded her head at his answer and smiled back at him.

The day ended with Natsu walking Zeref back to his room at the guild hall, having no idea of the conversation his brother had with the Requip mage. Of course, he and Gray were too busy fighting to really pay attention.

Natsu, too lazy to walk home, ended up crashing on Zeref’s couch. Although it may sound creepy, Natsu watched his brother sleep for a while. He looked so peaceful, it was hard to imagine all the things he’s been through. Knowing this, Natsu wanted to protect him from anything else.

“I promise, I’ll always protect you Zeref. In my mind, age does matter.” And with that, he fell asleep.


	3. Heirlooms and Brotherly Bonds!

Today, Natsu and co were standing by the request board in search of a high paying job. As always, the board was full of requests of all kinds. Some monster fighting, some retail working, even a few pet sitting jobs.

“Let’s do this one!” Natsu held up a paper to Lucy’s face, who backed away from being startled.

“No way! I don’t want to go through some icky swamp just to get some jewel.” Lucy yelled. She ran up to the board and plucked one off at random. “How about this one? It pays 500,000 and all we need to do in infiltrate some guys mansion.”

“Do we get to blow something up?” Lucy sighed at Natsu’s antics and shook her head.

“No, if we blow it up, we have to pay for it.”

“Couldn’t we just pay for the damage with your share of the money?”

“NO!” Lucy kicked Natsu in the face and sent him flying across the room. Suddenly, Erza grabbed the sheet she was holding out of her hands.

“This job seems ok. Good pay to. Natsu! Get your brother and meet us by the train station in an hour, we’re going on this mission!” You could see Natsu shaking from being yelled at by Erza. He then ran out of the guild, presumably to get Zeref, who was out shopping for room décor.

**_With Zeref_ **

Zeref was looking around an old trinkets shop, searching for something to spice up his room in the guild hall, when there was a sudden explosion outside. He quickly ran out of the shop and was shocked at the sight he saw. It was Natsu barreling down the street like his life depended on it, right towards him. He made the mistake of thinking Natsu would stop and they both went tumbling down to the ground.

“Zeref! Finally! Hurry and pack up your stuff we need to get to the train station asap!” Natsu said in a rush.

“Alright, alright, cool it” Zeref said while getting up and brushing himself off. “Why do we need to go to the train station?”

“Because! About an hour ago we chose a job and Erza told me to come get you then to be at the train station in an hour and an hour is almost up and if we aren’t there she’s gonna kill the both of us! NOW HURRY!” Natsu shouted in his ear, then proceeded to drag him back to the guild to pack.

After packing the essentials, like spare clothes, toiletries, ect, Natsu once again dragged Zeref to the train station, where the others were.

“Ah, glad to see you made it Natsu, now mind telling me why you were late?” Erza had an innocent smile on her face. Not something you want to see on the Requip mage.

“U-um w-well, I was looking for Z-Zeref around the market since I knew he was shopping, but it took me a while to find him.” Natsu was shaking in his boots…err sandals.

“I’ll let it slide this time, but you better not make it a habit.” Erza was back to her intimidation phase. “Anyway, let’s go and grab our tickets. Our job is a few towns away”

“Wait train?” Natsu looked sick just from thinking about it.

“We’re meeting up at a train station and it didn’t once occur to you that we we’re going to take one?” Zeref decided to add. He was mad that his shopping trip was cut short, and he didn’t even get the chance to purchase anything.

Some giggles could be heard throughout the group as they heard the train coming in. You could see Natsu preparing himself for when the train began to move. The mages sat down in a compartment, Lucy and Erza on one side, and Gray, Natsu, And Zeref on the other. Wendy wasn’t here because she was on a job with Romeo. Happy stayed cuddled up with Lucy.

“Ugh, please, just kill me.” Natsu groaned. He was bent over onto Zeref, who looked _very_ uncomfortable.

“I could always knock you out, if you desire.” Erza offered. Natsu, while barely being able to, shook his head. He imagined the pain it would cause and decided it wouldn’t be worth it.

“Why am I stuck sitting next to this puke machine?” Gray complained. Even Erza understood Gray’s complaining, and let it continue.

“Because, if he throws up on you, you don’t need to wear clothes anyway! You’ll probably strip before we even get there!” Lucy yelled at him. She nearly got up out of her seat but sat back down as the train jolted her back.

“Is there a reason that I’m currently being used as a pillow?” Zeref asked. Natsu was drooling all over his lap, and the black mages patience was waning.

“Well he ain’t using me as a pillow!” Gray yelled at him. Cleary, his patience with the dragon slayer was waning as well.

“Both of you be quiet!” Gray shut up immediately. Zeref didn’t seem too phased by her. He didn’t know what she does to the disobedient yet. Zeref, being naturally quiet, seemed to have satisfied Erza unintentionally.

The rest of the train ride went without a hitch, and the group soon arrived at the client’s house. The house was a medium class, similar to Lucy’s apartment. Lucy knocked on the door and an old woman answered.

“Why hello dears, have you come for our job request?”

“Indeed, we have.” Erza replied. “I presume you will inform us of the details?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Now why don’t you come in and have some tea while I explain everything.” The old woman guided the team inside, towards a living room. She then left for the kitchen to prepare tea, while the mages made themselves at home.

After a few minutes, the woman re-entered the room with a tray in hand. She placed the tea cups around the table, so everyone could have some.

“So, the reason I asked mages to help me is because an old enemy of mine has stolen a precious family heirloom.”

“If I may ask, why haven’t you informed the police about this?” Erza spoke up.

“Well…you see, my enemy is actually a powerful man. He has employed many strong people. The average police man wouldn’t stand a chance against his forces.” Erza nodded to her, signaling her to continue about the information regarding the thief.

“The man’s name is Nolan Chillford. He lives in a mansion at the edge of town that is surrounded by his men. The heirloom is also very fragile. Although it is made of silver, it’s very thin. My suggestion is to infiltrate the house by having someone pose as a servant. I know for a fact he is looking for a new butler at the moment to replace the last one he fired.”

“Would you look at that Lucy! Duke Everlue number 2!” Natsu teased Lucy, to which she didn’t respond very well.

“No way! I’m not pretending to be a maid after the last time! What if this guy thinks the same about beauty!” She yelled. You could see the residual sadness on her face from the man back when she first joined the guild.

“She couldn’t anyway. He is specifically looking for a butler, meaning a male servant. If anyone would have to do it, it would have to be one of you three.” The old woman said, as she pointed to Gray, Natsu, and Zeref.

“Not it!” Natsu and Gray both yelled at the same time. They slowly looked at Zeref, while he got a bad feeling where this was going.

**_Outside the Mansion_ **

Most of Team Natsu was huddled up in a bush, excluding Zeref, who was standing outside the gate of a _very_ large mansion.

“Did we really have to go as far as having me wear a suit. I don’t even have the job yet.” Zeref mumbled to himself. Natsu picked up on it and yelled at him.

“Yeah, you gotta look the part to get it!”

“SHHHH” Gray punched Natsu in the shoulder. “Be quiet flame breath! We can’t be seen remember!”

This was the moment that the gate in front of the black mage opened, revealing a man in a similar suit to Zeref.

“Ah, are you here for the job?” The man asked nicely. He seemed to be old, maybe in his 60’s.

“Yes sir.” Zeref was clearly nervous. If he didn’t get the job it would be 10 times harder to retrieve the stolen item.

“Alright then. My name is Arnold. Follow me and I will lead you to the master’s office.” The old man did as he said he would, and lead Zeref towards the mansion. Natsu watched him go, staying on guard in case he had to intervene. _‘Stay safe, brother’_

**_Inside the Office_ **

“Ah, it’s about time someone came for the job. I was getting worried no one would fill the space.” Nolan Chillford was sitting in an office chair, while his desk had papers sprawled across it. He gave off a noble posture, and looked to be in his 30’s or 40’s. “As you probably know, my name is Nolan Chillford. I run the fishing business in this town. As you can see, I’m quite prosperous. Now, what might your name be my boy?”

“It’s Zeref Dragneel, sir.” The man narrowed his eyes slightly at this.

“Zeref Dragneel? As in the dark mage who recently joined Fairy Tail?”

_‘Shit!”_ Zeref was panicking. First, he gave his name, which was feared across all of Fiore, then he gave away that he was a part of Fairy Tail! _‘And I called myself a tactician.’_

“Arnold! Grab that man! Somebody I stole from must’ve sent him!” Zeref tried to make a run for it, but the man that lead him here grabbed him with some sort of magic. He quickly grabbed a lacrima out of his pocket and threw it out of the window across the room. The lacrima exploded with light, alerting the rest of the team that his cover’s been blown.

Zeref then tried to conjure up some fire magic but could only manage a small flame. It seemed his magic power was drained quite a bit from his curse being broken. “Ha seems your magic isn’t very useful anymore!” Nolan yelled in his face. Zeref was struggling with whatever was holding him, but eventually he was able to land a solid kick on Arnold, who was sent tumbling backwards into the wall.

He then made a run for it, out of the office and tore through the halls. _‘I still need to find the heirloom!”_ He thought. He then remembered what the old lady said as they were leaving her house.

_“Remember, the heirloom is a necklace made of pure silver. You can tell it apart from other jewelry by the fox carvings. Nolan would probably keep it in the vault in his basement.”_

Zeref took off towards the passage leading to the first floor, then found the trap door leading to the basement. Arnold had made the mistake of showing him what everything was as he led him to the office originally. He jumped down the stairs and took of running once again. He could hear shouting from upstairs, most likely his pursuers being taken out by the team.

He kept running until he found a vault. Unfortunately, it was being guarded by two men wielding large axes. The men took sight of him and screamed as they charged towards the mage. He dodged their attacks and headed straight for the vault. He then realized he didn’t know how to get into it.

_‘Why am I being so dumb today?’_ He thought. The men then charged at him again. As they were charging, Zeref noticed a key around one of their necks. ‘ _That’s probably the key to the vault!’_

Sadly, this time, Zeref wasn’t fortunate enough to dodge their attacks and one of the axes, thankfully the blunt side, hid his chest and sent him skidding across the ground. Luckily, he was able to grab the key from around the guard’s neck, although he was sure he had a few broken ribs.

As he tried to get up, the guards charged towards him again, intending to land lethal blows. He pivoted to the right whilst tripping the two, sending them into the wall behind him. Because of their momentum, they hit the wall hard, and were both knocked unconscious. Zeref took a knee onto the ground, catching his breath. He could still hear Natsu and the others fighting, so he assumed he would be okay for now.

After a few minutes, he stood up, shakily, the pain in his ribs causing him to pause, and limped towards the vault. He then leaned against it as he inserted the key and the door slowly opened. A bright light was shown as it revealed millions of jewel worth of treasures. The black mage sifted through the different golds and silvers until he came across a necklace with a fox engraved on it. ‘ _This must be it.’_ He grabbed it and threw it in his pocket.

He could hear clanking coming from the stairs. He panicked for a moment before he saw the red hair of Erza. He gave off a sigh of relief, happy it was just her and not some other enemy. He wasn’t sure if he could afford to fight anyone else.

“Ah Zeref, there you are. Have you found the heirloom?” Zeref nodded and pulled it out. Erza smiled and glanced around the room to see the two unconscious men. She then looked Zeref over and noticed he was limping slightly. “Are you injured?” She asked. You could hear the concern laced in her voice.

“I am, but its fine. Those guards over there just gave me a rough time. Thankfully, they don’t quite understand momentum.” He tried to act fine, but anyone could tell the strain put into his calm façade.

“Well then let’s go back to the others, otherwise Natsu will tear up the place looking for you. They should be nearly finished with the guards, as well as Nolan himself.” She then walked back up the stairs, with Zeref limping, but following behind her.

“Natsu! We have the heirloom, so you can stop with all the destruction!” Natsu heard her and looked over to Zeref. Said mage tried his hardest to seem fine, knowing Natsu would fuss about the injury. There’s also the possibility that he would kill the men who injured him in the first place.

Natsu ran over and hugged Zeref. “Well it’s a good thing your okay! I was kinda worried when you sent out the flare!” Natsu did his signature laugh and held his stomach.

“Well now that we have the thing, lets go give it back to the old woman.” Gray said. He was shirtless, most likely because of his interesting habit.

“Very well.” Erza gave one last glance to Zeref. She was worried about him but understood his reluctance to inform his brother of his injuries. The group then left, the mansion in shambles, (curtesy of Natsu) and headed back to the old woman’s house.

**_At the Old Woman’s House_ **

“Thankyou so much for bringing this back to me.” The old woman set out more tea once again, and profusely thanked the team for their efforts.

“It’s not a problem ma’am” Erza replied. The team had already been payed the jewel, but the woman had them stay for a while. “I don’t mean to offend you, but we must be going now. Remember, feel free to ask for Fairy Tail’s aid in the future.”

The team heard Erza’s words and prepared themselves to leave. As they left, they waved goodbye to the old woman and thanked her for her kindness. They headed off towards the train station. Along the way, Zeref was having a hard time walking without attracting Natsu’s, as well as Lucy or Gray’s attention. Erza was a little to perceptive, but said nothing, to which Zeref respected.

The mage couldn’t wait to get on the train. His ribs felt like they were going to collapse any moment. Once he got on the train he could relax until he got back to the guild, where he could patch himself up.

The group made it to the train station and headed to the ticket booth.

“5 tickets for the train to magnolia please.” Erza asked the vendor.

“Oh, I’m very sorry. The trains have been delayed for a while due to a landslide. They won’t begin running again until tomorrow morning I’m afraid” The vendor had a guilty look on her face as she told the team this.

“Hmm, that does complicate things a bit, although we can manage. Come everyone, we will have to travel on foot back to Magnolia!” Erza said. Zeref had a panicked look. Could he make it back to Magnolia in the state he was in? He really didn’t want Natsu to worry over him. Natsu, however, was smiling ear to ear, happy that he didn’t have to ride a “death machine” again.

The team set off and Erza slid in next to Zeref. “How is your injury? You’ve clearly been having problems with it while walking. Are you sure you can make it to Magnolia like this?” She asked. Before he could answer, Natsu overheard and took on a slightly angered expression.

“Wait, you really are injured?!” Gray and Lucy looked over at this, taking on worried faces.

“Um, well, those guys in the basement broke a few of my ribs. I’ve just been having a little trouble walking, that’s all.” Natsu could now see the pain in Zeref’s eyes. He mentally punched himself for not noticing earlier.

“Why didn’t you say anything!” Natsu’s expression turned to worry and walked over to Zeref.

“I didn’t want to bother you.” At this, Natsu kept his worried expression, but also gave out a saddened one as well.

“It doesn’t bother me. If you’re in pain I’m gonna help you all I can!” Natsu picked Zeref up and put him over his shoulder.

“What the- Hey! Put me down Natsu!” Zeref punched his back. Getting off his feet did feel relieving for his ribs, but he still had pride.

“No way! This is what you get for not telling me before!” Natsu smiled, although Zeref couldn’t see it. Zeref kept up with his struggling, but eventually relented when he realized Natsu wouldn’t go down without a fight, and he was in no shape for fighting. The group reached the guildhall late at night, around 10:00 or so, and Zeref was still slung over Natsu’s shoulder.

“What’s pinky luggin you around for?” Gajeel asked.

“I was injured. He hasn’t put me down for hours.” Zeref said with a monotone voice. A few of the people in the guild laughed as Natsu just continued towards the infirmary. He walked in and shut the door behind him.

He deposited Zeref on the bed, who was glad to finally be able to move around again. Natsu started pulling out different supplies for patching Zeref up.

“I can do it myself Natsu.” Zeref said as he tried to take the items from the dragon slayer.

“Nah, let me do it. You’re injured, so it’s gonna be hard to patch yourself up now.” Natsu did have a point there, so Zeref sighed and let Natsu do his thing. Soon he was done and tried to pick Zeref up again.

“Oh no you don’t.” Zeref pushed Natsu away, to which he pouted at. “I’m patched up now. I can walk down to the guild by myself!” Zeref made a move to get up and proceeded to immediately grab a hold of the bed before he could collapse onto the floor.

“If you don’t want me to pick you up, at least let me help you walk.” Zeref relented and Natsu put the mages arm over himself. They slowly walked down to the guild hall, where they then stopped at a table with the rest of Team Natsu, excluding Wendy who was still out.

“How are you feeling Zeref?” Lucy asked. She had been worried ever since the mage told them he was injured.

“Better than before. Believe me, Natsu saw to that.” At this, the team smiled, and Lucy moved over to make room for Zeref. Mira soon came over to serve them the dinner of that night. The team enjoyed their food together as Natsu constantly checked on Zeref. Soon, Zeref made a move to get out of his seat.

“I’m going to go to bed now.” He began to walk away, to which Natsu got up quickly and started helping him again.

“I plan on helping you until you’re able to _properly_ walk on your own.” He said. He then guided Zeref to his room on the second floor. A few members gave wishes of “I hope you get better” as the duo entered Zeref’s room.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow Natsu” Zeref tried to make his way towards his bed by himself, but Natsu continued to help him.

“Are you kidding? I’m crashing on your couch tonight!” Zeref didn’t seem very happy about this.

“Why exactly?”

“Because you’re my brother and I’m gonna make sure you’re a-okay!” Clearly, Natsu wasn’t going to relent. Zeref just sighed for the hundredth time that night, and simply settled into bed as Natsu made himself comfortable on the couch. “G’night bro”

“Night, Natsu.” The two brothers fell asleep soon after.

**_Time Skip (Sort of)_ **

For the next few days, until Zeref could walk properly without being in pain, Natsu followed him _everywhere_. Zeref felt like it was a god send once Wendy came back and offered to heal his ribs fully. Natsu, however, wasn’t happy about this, since now he didn’t have an excuse to follow his brother.

Anyone that had second thoughts about Zeref joining the guild quickly changed their mind after seeing the bond that the brothers had. Many people were surprised to see how normal Zeref really was.

“Hey bro! We got another job to go on. Come on!” Natsu called to him. He reluctantly got up and headed out with the team once again.


	4. The Mandatory Drinking Contest

It’s been a month since Zeref joined Fairy Tail. Of course, given that Fairy Tail has a party whenever they gain an excuse for one, they decided to celebrate it. Most of the members were setting it up, while Team Natsu was dragging Zeref around, claiming that they needed to give him a tour. Of course, this was just so that it would be a surprise for the mage when they got back to the guild.

“Guys, I’ve been living here for a month. I think I know enough about the town.” Zeref was getting _very_ annoyed at this point.

“You can never know enough about Magnolia. If you are to live here, you shall be able to pinpoint every nook and cranny of it.” Erza said. She gave off a pure radiance, as well as showing confidence in her words.

“But am I really required to know where _every_ bakery is? You even made me memorize which ones have the best cake.” Zeref’s face fell flat as he told her this.

“And what bakery would that be?” She glared at him, expecting the correct answer.

“Bread Crumbs of the Canal, ma’am.”

“And where is that located?” She proceeded to ask.

“Along the canal, 14 blocks north of Lucy’s apartment.” Erza seemed satisfied with his answer, and quickly caught up to the others, who were slightly ahead of the two. The day continued like this, with Team Natsu showing Zeref all their favorite spots around Magnolia. At some point, Erza got a message on her communication lacrima.

“Hey, I need to check this, one moment.” Erza receded into an ally. Zeref was left wondering what it was about, while the others knew exactly what it was, and were trying desperately to hide their smiles. Meanwhile, in the alley, Erza answered the lacrima as Mira came up on the screen.

“Hey Erza, how’s everything going on your end?” Mira asked.

“Its going well. Is everything ready at the guild hall?” Erza glanced out of the alleyway to see Zeref trying to push Natsu away from him.

“Just about. I was calling to let you know to start heading over. We all want to surprise him, including you of course, so the plan will be that you guys make an excuse and run from Zeref, toward the guild hall. Take your positions quickly and then when he enters you can join in when we yell surprise!” Mira had a large smile on her face, no doubt from the excitement of planning another party.

“Very well, we will be there soon.” Erza turned off the lacrima and started waling back to the group.

“Come on bro! Try it! It’s the best thing you’ll ever taste!” Natsu seemed to be trying to get Zeref to eat something.

“How many time do I have to say it! I am not eating a pepper! Chances are, knowing you, its one of the hottest peppers in Fiore!” Zeref was steaming, with anger, not the pepper, and was extremely close to punching his brother. Erza approached the brothers and grabbed Natsu’s arm.

“Enough Natsu, we are heading to the guild now, Mira said she is making her famous sticky buns!” Technically, that wasn’t a lie, she was making them for the celebration. The team ran ahead of Zeref, leaving him in the dust.

Once the group gained sight of the guild hall, they checked behind them, gaining confirmation that Zeref was still a way’s behind them. They quickly ran into the guild hall to see Mira beckoning them towards her.

“How long till he gets here?” The barmaid asked.

“He should be here any minute.” Natsu confirmed. Mira turned off the lights and pulled the group into her hiding spot behind the bar. Everyone could be heard whispering to each other about different things while they waited for the black mage.

Soon, you could hear faint footsteps outside the door of the guild. Everyone went quiet in a split second, and the door to the guild creaked open. A figure walked inside slightly, covered by the shadows within the room.

“Hello?”

“SURPRISE!”

**_With Zeref, a Few Minutes Ago_ **

‘ _Well that’s lovely, first they pull me all around the place, then they ditch me.’_ Zeref was standing in the middle of the street, where you could still see dust flying up from the departure of his “tour guides”. He sighed and began to make his way towards the guild hall. As he walked, significantly slower than his recent companions, he looked around.

He could see different shops and attractions that the group had shown him throughout the morning. He contemplated getting something to eat before going back to the guild hall, but even he thought that Mira had the greatest cooking he had ever tasted. That’s saying something, coming from someone who has tried 400 years’ worth of different cooking (Not that he ate out much).

With that thought in mind, he continued towards the guild hall. After a bit of his own sightseeing, he made it back to the large building. It was abnormally quiet, to the point where it was frightening. He cautiously snuck up to the doors and creaked them open. He took a few steps inside, surprised that it was almost pitch-black inside. He knew that Natsu and the others came in this direction, so where were they?

“Hello?” He yelled out.

“SURPRISE!” The lights instantly turned on and everyone jumped out of their hiding places. Zeref jumped backwards himself, startled. A few people could be heard giving out soft giggles at his reaction.

“Wha?” Zeref was looking out across the hall. Different decorations were strewn all around the room. There was a big banner hanging from the second floor’s balcony that said, “ _Happy 1 Month Anniversary_ ”.

“Fairy Tail loves celebrations. So we decided to celebrate your 1 months anniversary of being a member!” Mira came up to the mage and smiled at him. A few different members came up to him saying congratulations or similar things. Soon, Natsu dragged him over to a large pile of gifts.

“Are these all for me?” Zeref asked. The pile almost reached the ceiling and was at least three tables wide. There were probably over 100 different boxes wrapped in colorful paper.

“Yeah! Everyone thought they should get you something for the occasion. Fairy Tail makes everything they do count!” Natsu put his arm around Zeref in a half-hug. They began opening all different kind of gifts, some being obvious who got them, and some taking a little guessing to figure out.

Finally, he got to the presents from the members he was close to. He decided to start with Natsu’s. As he opened the wrapper, then the box, he saw a frilly black clothing article. As he pulled it out, it seemed to be a dress.

“You were always wearing that dress before, so I got you a new one!” Natsu’s smile was genuine, really thinking he was doing his brother a favor. Zeref’s face went up in flames, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Natsu he had messed up. He decided to role with it, promising to never wear it (In public at least. There’s not a lot he wouldn’t do to see his brother happy).

“Thank you, Natsu.” Zeref said with a deadpan face. He could see some members who were watching the gift unwrapping snicker. He glared at them for a few moments before continuing.

Next, he moved onto Lucy’s. The celestial mage got him a necklace with a key charm on it. The key was designed as if he was the spirit residing in it. It had demonic designs around it, while the symbol was a fancy way to write “ZD”.

“I hope you like it, I had a few of my spirits help me design it.” Zeref gave a ghost of a smile and thanked Lucy. She smiled herself, glad to know that Zeref liked her gift.

He decided to go for Gray’s next. He was a little worried that it would be a prank gift but was soon proven otherwise once he opened an ornate box that was covered in an ice themed wrapping paper. The inside revealed a ballerina music box with a statue of Zeref and Natsu back to back. The entire thing was made from ice.

“I didn’t really know what to get you, so I kinda though of this on the fly. Don’t worry, I imbued it with magic so it won’t ever melt, no matter how hot it gets.” Zeref had tears in his eyes, ready to spill. He had thought Gray would still hold a grudge over him. While he didn’t believe it had faded entirely, he realized that Gray was a lot more forgiving than he let on. He let his smile grow into a bright one and thanked the ice mage.

Next, Wendy came up to him. She held out a little box, which contained a small pouch filled with different gemstones. She claimed to have to idea what to get and had seen them in a store. Zeref ruffled her hair and collected his gift from both Carla and Happy. It was a small fish charm with carvings in it. It was well detailed and seemed to have had a lot of care put into it.

Finally, he finished with Erza’s gift. It was a large box, almost as tall as him (He was short okay!) and had a pull ribbon on the side. He pulled it open and was met with a giant strawberry cake that repeated the words used on the banner. His eyes widened, and his smile grew even bigger. Something absolutely no one knew about him was that he had a giant sweet tooth.

The guild gathered around as Erza cut the cake, giving a significantly larger piece to the black mage himself. He sat down with the team, Erza soon joining him, as they all dug in. He tried not to be too fast, as to not give himself away, but couldn’t help the face he gave off as the taste coated his mouth. A few people noticed this and smiled, never having seen this side of the mage before.

Not much later, the party was in full swing, with people dancing, drinking, and overall having a good time. Unfortunately for Zeref, the moment everyone was waiting for finally happened.

“Hey Zeref! Get over here! We need to have a drinking contest!” The mage could hear the shout from the bar, where Cana sat, waving him over. His face paled at the thought of drinking. The last time he got drunk…well let’s just say it didn’t end well. Not to mention he was a serious lightweight.

“I don’t think that’s suck a good idea.” Zeref said with a worried face. Part of him didn’t think he would get out of this that easy. That part of him was right.

“Well too bad! I’ve had a drinking contest with everyone in this guild, and I’m not about to stop the tradition now!” Cana was not giving up. Zeref decided to relent, thinking it would save his time if he just gave in. Soon, he found himself sitting at the bar with tons of different mugs, filled to the brim with beer, sitting in front of him. Mira came up and began to explain the rules.

“So, the way this will work, is you will both take turns drinking a mug of beer. Whoever blackout’s first loses.” Cana was eyeing him from her seat.

“Wait blackout? I don’t really want to go that far.” He knew how much he would have to drink to blackout. On his estimate, maybe two or three mugs. Four at best. And no, that wasn’t a lot.

“Well, ya can’t back out now! Get it on Mira!” Cana raised her hands in the air, ready to begin the demise of one Zeref Dragneel.

“Alright, Cana, you start!”

**_A Few Minutes Later_ **

“Wow, who knew the most evil mage of all time was a lightweight.” Gray said. Almost everyone was surprised at how little the man could drink before blacking out. Some, namely Cana, were disappointed. While everyone was chatting, the black mage slept on the ground, unconscious from the amount of alcohol in his body. He was mumbling slightly.

So…who’s gonna take him to bed?” Cana asked. Natsu quickly volunteered and carried Zeref all the way to his room. Along the way you could hear Zeref mumbling about different things. Many were incoherent, but some were just plain funny, making the guild howl out in laughter. Natsu slipped into Zeref’s room and deposited his brother on the bed. After tucking him in, he stepped back out and shut the door behind him, to continue with the party activities.

**_The Next Morning_ **

Zeref woke up with a massive headache. He didn’t remember much from last night, other than the gift giving and dancing. He reluctantly stumbled out of bed and made his way towards the door. As he was going however, he took a glance at the clock. It read 11:52. ‘ _Wow, I sure slept in. Its nearly 12:00’._

He stepped out of the door at was met face to…top of a flying table. The participants of the current brawl heard a crash, as well as a squeak come out from over by the rooms. Zeref was curled up on the floor, holding his face in pain, as a broken table was sitting on either side of him.

“Well look who finally woke up! Glad to see you back, bro!” Natsu shouted. He rushed over to help his brother up.

“That’s one way to greet me. Natsu, what happened last night? I remember gifts and dancing, but not much else.” Natsu gave Zeref a guilty smile, knowing his brother wouldn’t be happy about the next few words that would come out of his mouth.

“Well…You sort of got blackout drunk from a contest with Cana.” Natsu smiled sheepishly. Zeref had a horrified look on his face. At the least, he blacked out. He shivered thinking about all the things that he could’ve done to embarrass himself, had be been awake.

“Don’t forget what he said about Gramps!” Gray decided to chip in. Zeref got scared, thinking of all the things the Master could do to him, depending on what he had said.

“Oh yeah!” Natsu looked over to where Zeref was now sitting down. “You were mumbling about how Gramps always claimed to be getting old, then mumbling about crap that you’ve dealt with, and saying that it should be you calling him a young man.” A few people laughed overhearing this, remembering the drunken comment from the mage the previous night.

Even Zeref found this funny. He honestly doubted that Makarov would harm him for that. If worst comes to worst, he can blame the fact that he was drunk. Although it didn’t end terribly, Zeref promised himself that he would never drink again. As expected, this didn’t last as long as he had hoped it would. It was Fairy Tail, after all.

After this, every time Zeref drank, he would ensure that he either didn’t drink too much or drank enough to black out. He made the mistake once of drinking a moderate amount some time before he joined the guild. Some people hadn’t walked away with all their limbs attached that evening. Even when some people would try to get him in a semi-conscious drunken state, he would make an excuse and leave to do something else.

These attempts left Zeref watching, in case someone tried to pull something funny. Although he kept his guard up often, he enjoyed all the times that the guild would relax and just party. Sometimes he would regret it in the morning, but he was truly happy. Seemed this was the guild for him after all.


	5. Markers

It was late in the night but Fairy Tail was still going at it. Brawls were taking place and other members were chatting about many things. Some were even placing bets on who they thought would win, many being placed on Erza, who was participating this time, rather than being focused on stopping the fight.

Zeref was trying his best to sit out of the brawl. He was tired, mostly from Natsu keeping him up late last night, and it being nearly 2 in the morning. His eyes drooped as he sat at a table, sipping on coffee. If he tried to go to bed, Natsu would most likely notice and drag him into the fight.

He struggled, trying his best not to succumb to sleep. He could always sleep right here, but he doubted his back would feel good in the morning. Despite this, he was _really_ tired. He laid his head on his arms and put his head down on the table, shutting his eyes.

_‘A few minutes wouldn’t hurt.’_ He thought. Sadly, he was mistaken, for a few hours later everyone had left the guild hall, and he was still slumbering away at his table in the corner. Not even Mira noticed him while she was cleaning up the guild hall earlier.

The next morning however, Mira, as well as the Master, arrived at the guild hall, only to then notice the sleeping black mage in the corner. The two stared at him for a while. Him sleeping over there like that…really made him look like a child. Mira snapped a photo of him on a camera lacrima and stored it away for later. Not wanting to disturb him, the two let him sleep.

At this point, the guild was filled with most of its members, it being around noon. Apparently, the table was tucked so far away that no one else who had entered even took notice of the sleeping Dragneel. That is, until the other one showed up.

“Hey someone! Fight me!” Natsu shouted. He ran around the guild wreaking havoc, punching anyone that stood in his way. Soon he got bored though, since no one would return the fight today, and decided to look around for his brother. He sniffed the air a few times, catching onto his brother’s scent, and ran towards him.

The dragon slayer found his brother snoring away. He froze upon the sight of it. ‘ _Wow. He is adorable right now. Well… TIME TO WAKE HIM UP!’_

Natsu’s fist caught on fire, as he prepared to punch Zeref, most likely through the wall. However, this attempt was stopped by none other than Mira.

“You will not disturb him. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear.” Mira said slowly. She was close to going full on Satan Soul.

“Y-Yes ma’am!” Natsu scurried away from the She Devil. Some members attention was pulled towards the corner, from all the commotion. After seeing what was going on, they mentioned it to other guild members nearby, until everyone in the guild took notice of the black mage.

A few (a lot) of the girls found this cute, some of the guys even finding it cute, while others found it funny. A crowd of members soon gathered around Zeref, not to his knowledge, of course. They stood there in silence until Lucy spoke up.

“So…what are we going to do with him?” At this, a few members donned mischievous smiles on their faces, while others took on a worried expression. One of these people being Lucy herself, who watched a few members take out markers, whip cream, and any other sleep pranking stuff you could find. Luckily, Erza put a stop to this.

“ENOUGH!” We shall allow him to sleep in peace!” She was very loud, but surprisingly did not wake Zeref up. Any members that took out items cowered in fear and backed away.

“But Erza! We should use this opportunity to its fullest. Who knows if this will happen again!” Natsu joined back into the semi-action, holding his own set of markers and other items. Erza honestly wasn’t opposed to the idea, she just didn’t want the black mage to hate them all when he woke up. Eventually, she relented.

“Fine. But just this once!” Natsu’s smile came back full force. Many people were surprised at Erza’s reaction, thinking she would just punch Natsu for not listening the first time. Soon, everyone with supplies was back to creeping towards the unsuspecting mage, while others watched, waiting to see where this was heading.

People started drawing all over Zeref’s face and arms. The current canvas surprisingly stayed asleep during the entire thing. He slept soundly as everyone got their turn.

Soon, he had many markings on him. This included his face sporting a fabulous mustache, along with circles around his eyes, and the words “LORD OF TEARS” written large, on the middle of his forehead. His arms had many notes written on them. Most being a friendly offending message, while others were plain funny, as well as shapes drawn on and then a very accurate drawing of him in the dress Natsu got him recently (Courtesy of Reedus).

After everyone had a chance to add their own markings to the sleeping mage, Natsu decided to take him up to his room. Everyone was surprised that he hadn’t woken up yet. Natsu soon emerged back out of the room, ready to continue with the guild’s shenanigans.

**_2 Hours Later, Zeref’s Room_ **

Zeref slowly woke up. He found himself in his bed, although he remembers trying to sleep a few minutes at his usual corner table in the guild hall. His neck and back hurt, signaling that no one brought him up to his room too quickly, and that he was most likely left there overnight. He just assumed it was Natsu who brought him up, since there wasn’t really anyone else that would. Probably. Maybe. You never know with Fairy Tail.

He struggled to sit up, still tired from being up so late last night. As he finally managed to sit up, he checked the clock that he kept in his room. ‘ _2:04 huh. Damn, I must’ve been really tired’_

He hopped off his bed and trudged over to the bathroom. On the way over he grabbed a spare change of clothes, just a white long-sleeve shirt and black pants, as well as a comb so he could tame his hair. Despite what people may think, he moved A LOT in his sleep, and had a terrible bed head nearly every morning.

He set his things down on the counter and reached for his comb. He decided to comb his hair first, then he would bother getting dressed. He picked it up and looked in the mirror to have a reference of what he was doing. And that’s when he saw it.

“NATSU!!!”

**_Out in the Guild Hall, A Few Minutes Ago_ **

“What do you think his reaction will be?” Gray asked. Team Natsu was currently sitting at a table chatting about random things. The topic of Zeref recently came up, when Lucy asked when he would wake up.

“My guess, yelling, at me specifically. Anger, frustration, more anger, definitely embarrassment. Did I miss anything?” Natsu replied. He had a thoughtful look on his face as he tapped his head, trying to think of more reactions his brother could possibly have.

It was around this moment, that a scream could be heard throughout the guildhall, and possibly all of Magnolia itself, with its anger directed towards one specific Dragon Slayer.

“NATSU!!!” The amount of rage that could be heard it that scream scared many of the Fairy Tail members, not thinking that kind of noise could come from the newest of them.

Natsu gulped and turned towards the back of the guild hall, where a door slammed open and an extremely pissed of mage walked through. He was still covered in marker, but his eyes glowed red, rather than their normal black. An aura of pure evil was around him as he walked over to his brother.

“Hi Zeref! Is something wrong?” Natsu asked. He was hoping to joke around to lighten the mood, but that didn’t stop Zeref from glaring at him and proceeding to walk over.

“Is something wrong?” Zeref repeated. “Hell ya somethings wrong! You put market all over me! By the way, its permanent marker!” Zeref was fuming now. If you looked closely you could see smoke coming out of his ears.

“Wait hold up! I wasn’t the only one to put market on you! Maybe someone else had the permanent marker!” Natsu tried to defend himself, but Happy gave him away.

“Did you use this marker Natsu?” Happy asked as he held up a black marker that said, “Property of Natsu Dragneel” as well as “Permanent Marker”. Zeref’s glare increased tenfold as he grabbed Natsu by the wrist and dragged him outside the guild hall.

Anyone still inside the guild hall could hear Natsu’s screams, as well as laughter coming from the person who dragged him. Some were tempted to go and see what was happening but didn’t want to risk having the dark mages wrath deflected onto them.

Not long after, Zeref dragged Natsu back in and left him on one of the tables. He then left to go upstairs, where he would presumably try and get all the marker off.

“So, Natsu, what exactly did he do to you?” Gray asked. Everyone tried to listen in, wondering what could cause Natsu to scream like he did.

“I-it was l-like a-another E-Erza.” Natsu was shaking and holding his head in his hands. Many of the other members imagined what he meant, and slowly backed away in fear of Zeref going after Natsu again.

“That doesn’t really tell us much.” Erza said. Others would have said it but were too scared to get anything out. After a few minutes, some people tried to get more out of Natsu about what happened, but Natsu just ignored them and after a while, went home.

**_In Zeref’s Room_ **

Zeref was standing at his sink, attempting to scrub off all the marker on his arms. He had used every kind of soap he owned but still couldn’t get it all off. Eventually, he found that if he scrubbed for long enough, he could get it to fade. After about half an hour of scrubbing soapy water on his arm, the marker was gone and left a completely red arm in its place.

‘ _Should’ve expected that. Anyway, 1 down, 2 to go. I think I’ll do my face last’._

Zeref continued with his other arm, until all you could see was aggravated skin, and then got ready to do his face. This would probably be the hardest, and most painful to get off, given the sheer amount of it. He first started working on his forehead, then moved down to his eyes, (Thankfully they didn’t draw on his eyelids) and slowly continued down until he got everything off.

By the end of it, he looked like a tomato with how red his face was. He then actually got ready for the day, hoping the color of his face would return to normal soon. He walked out of his room to see people looking at him with fear.

“What?” He asked. He figured people would laugh at how red his face is, not cower in fear from it.

“Natsu told us what you did…. Sort of. Whatever! He said you were like Erza and you NEVER joke about Erza’s wrath!” One of the un important members said.

“Oh… I didn’t think holding him down to the ground and whispering death threats in his ear is that scary.” He replied. His faced made it seem like he thought it was normal to do that.

“Um… Okay that’s a little psychotic but at least you didn’t follow through with it.” Gray said. He was still scared, but not too much anymore given that the evil appearance he had in his mind was shattered when Zeref stepped out of his room completely normal. Except for the red of course.

“Who said I didn’t plan to follow through with it?” Zeref said innocently. A few people sweat dropped, while others backed away. The guild was in silence until Erza spoke up.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why is your face red?” Zeref’s face flushed in embarrassment from this question, but luckily no one could see it behind the red already covering his face.

“Well uh, I had to get the marker off okay! This was the only way to do it!” He said defensively. A few people laughed at this, making Zeref even more embarrassed.

“Hey Zeref?” Mira called up to him. Zeref looked over and saw her holding up a piece of paper. “I was wondering if you wanted this framed?” Turns out the piece of paper was the photo Mira took of Zeref while he was sleeping. Zeref looked panicked at seeing the picture and hoped that Natsu would never know it existed.

‘ _I am never falling asleep in the guild hall again’_

**_At Natsu’s House_ **

“Happy, let the guild know I won’t be dropping by for a while. I’d rather hide until someone drags me there.” Happy nodded and left. Soon though, Natsu could see Erza coming towards his house. He quickly tried to hide but wasn’t fast enough. Erza grabbed hold of him and dragged him back to the guild, ignoring his protests.

Soon, Natsu was apologizing repeatedly, while Zeref, with his tomato face still active, stood above him glaring. Luckily for the other members, everyone was too distracted to mention the other people that drew on the mage.

By the next day, Zeref’s face had returned to normal and everything was mostly back to normal as well. Other than Natsu knowing what Zeref could really be like when mad, but that’s just details of course.


	6. A Black Mages Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Was written around Halloween so it's not technically out of season.

Team Natsu was currently out in the forest, working on a job they had accepted earlier in the day.

“Heads up Natsu!” Gray shouted as he tossed a dark mage towards him with his magic. Natsu quickly fired an attack at him, leaving the mage unconscious. The two continued to tag team the dark mages they were facing.

“Lucy look out!” Happy was flying around the forest’s tree tops when he saw a mage attempt to sneak up on Lucy. Luckily, Zeref saw this and blasted a ball of fire in their direction. The mage quickly backed off but ended up being taken out by one of Erza’s stray swords. The woman in question took no notice of this, however.

“Thanks, Zeref!” Lucy yelled back to him. She was currently in her Leo star dress as the spirit fought alongside her.

The team was disposing of the mages quickly. Originally, the request was to take down a dark guild that was causing trouble to the nearby town. That soon evolved into an all-out battle in the forest, from most of the guild attempting to flee after their master was taken down. They had realized there was no escaping the famous Titania and began to literally fight for their lives.

Soon, all the mages were knocked unconscious and tied up. The team headed back to the town where they could inform the Rune Knights of the mages positions so that they could be arrested.

“Whew, I’m hungry!” Natsu was walking ahead of the group, who was heading towards the local inn. With it being near dark, they decided to rest up and head home in the morning.

“We’ll be at the inn soon, Natsu. I’m sure they will have food there.” Zeref said.

“And chances are, they’ll be handing out free candy for Halloween!” Happy was flying circles around Natsu’s head. “I hope they have fish candies!”

“Happy, Halloween isn’t until the day after tomorrow. They probably won’t be giving out candy until then.” Lucy said to the exceed. His smile fell a bit but got bigger once he said the next few words.

“That’s okay, at least I have my fishies!”

The group soon made it back to the inn, where they were served dinner. Turns out, a nice old couple ran the inn and decided to give Happy some of the candy they had bought earlier, while preparing for the holiday. Natsu, as usual, was shoving food into his mouth as fast as he could.

“Would you slow down Natsu? Seriously, your grossing me out!” Lucy shouted at the dragon slayer. He mumbled a sorry but didn’t slow down.

The dinner was normal, for the attending people anyway, and concluded after everyone had their fill. Erza was nice enough to pay for the food Natsu had eaten, even though the dinner was free with the rooms.

Soon the team began heading to their rooms. They couldn’t get enough rooms, because of demand for the holidays, so they set up groups. Natsu, Happy and Zeref in one room, Gray and Erza in another room, and finally Lucy, Wendy, and Carla in the last room.

**_Morning of Hollow’s Eve_ **

The next morning, after getting a wonderful breakfast from the inn, everyone was ready to head back to the guild. Everyone except Natsu, of course.

“Do we _have_ to take the train?” He asked. The dragon slayer was looking sick already, just from the though of a moving vehicle.

“Yes, we do. I don’t care how sick you feel, I am not walking 200 kilometers back to Magnolia.” Zeref answered for him. He gave off a glare that silenced Natsu. The team soon made it to the train station where their train was about to head off.

“Oh shit! Hurry up and get on!” Gray yelled. Everyone followed him and rushed to find an empty compartment. They got on just in time and sat down before it started to move.

The ride was spent mostly in silence, save for Natsu’s complaining, and the team soon arrived back in Magnolia, where there were decorations hung up all over the place. It was bright out now, but during the night they would surely light up the streets.

“Wow! Its so pretty!” Wendy was awed at the sight of the decorations. They were colored with bright oranges, and blacks to contrast those, along with fake monsters hanging around. Some people were even out in their costumes already, advertising different trinkets and sweets.

“It is quite nice. I never really got the chance to enjoy the decorations put up for the holidays.” Zeref added. He was certainly in awe as well, he just didn’t show it.

“Yes, even I think they outdid themselves this year.” Erza said as she pointed to a group of witches floating around on their broom sticks, with the help of magic.

“Looking at all these decorations reminds me, we need costumes!” Natsu shouted out, feeling better now that he was off the train.

“Your right! I know the perfect place we can go to look for them!” Erza began dragging Natsu to who knows where, while the others followed in suit. They didn’t have to go far until they came across a shop with a large sign that read “DANIEL’S COSTUMES”.

“Ahh, here it is. They have a very large selection, so you should be able to find just what you want.” Erza quickly abandoned the group to find her own costume. They all decided to go their separate ways looking for one. Natsu stuck with Zeref of course, or more like Natsu followed him all over the store pointing out costumes that he found “would look good on him”, but that’s just details.

“How about this one, bro?” Natsu said, pointing to a costume of a princess.

“No! Now would you please go away and find your own costume!” Zeref shouted at him. A few glances were thrown in their direction, some of fear, but Natsu wasn’t fazed by this.

“Aww, what’s wrong with wanting to help my brother find a costume?” Natsu had an innocent smile on his face, even though he just wanted to piss his brother off.

“What’s wrong? You keep pointing out random costumes! It’s annoying!” Zeref was fuming at this point, just about ready to tear off his brother’s head.

“Aww whatev- I think I just found my costume.” Natsu had started to defend himself when he saw the stand showing a large dragon costume. He ran over to it and plucked one of them off the shelf to try on.

“I’ll be right back!” The fire mage shouted as he ran off in supposedly the direction of the change rooms. Zeref took this opportunity to browse the costumes himself.

“Can I help you sir?” A lady came up and asked. Based on her uniform the mage in question assumed she was a worker here.

“Well, I’m looking for a costume, but I don’t really know what to get.” Zeref scratched his head while he said this.

“You know, I think we have something that would suit you perfectly!” The lady ran off, but soon came back with a package in hand. She handed the package to Zeref.

“Just go try that on and tell me how you like it.” Zeref then walked in the direction that Natsu had headed, before the lady spoke up again. “Umm, the change rooms are the other way.” She said with a smile.

Zeref quickly changed direction, embarrassed, and headed to the change rooms. Along the way, he saw Natsu running towards him. He ducked out of the way before Natsu could run him over. After his brother passed him, he got up and soon made it to the change rooms. He found an empty stall and rushed into it.

He opened the package the lady gave him to find a dark cloak, along with a scythe.

_‘Are you kidding me! The grim reaper! What do these people think of me! Actually, now that I think about it, this kinda suits me.’_

Zeref pulled the costume over his head and looked at himself in the mirror. It actually looked quite well on him. He pulled it off and stuffed it back in the package. On his way out, he saw the woman that recommended the outfit to him.

“Ah! There you are. So how did you like the costume?” She asked.

“Actually, I like it a lot. Thankyou for the help.” He replied. The woman was called by another customer with a question, so she mumbled a happy to help and headed off to do her job.

Zeref walked around a bit looking for the others. He saw them near the checkout line. He assumed they were waiting for him since everyone else was there.

“There you are! You ready Zeref?” Lucy asked. Zeref nodded and the group went to get in line and pay for their items. After paying, everyone went their separate ways, so that they could get some rest before the festivities tomorrow.

**_Halloween Day_ **

The guild was even more lively today than ever. In celebration of Halloween, the guild put together an everyone’s welcome party. Many people down in the town had set up stalls selling anything you could imagine, along with a parade that was flowing through the street.

Many people were dressed in different costumes. Some were dressed as different kinds of undead, while others were dressed as nice things like angels and fairies. There was even the odd person that was dressed as a popular wizard. Well, more than a few people, actually.

Many children were dressed up as the more popular members of Fairy Tail. There were Natsu’s, Gray’s, Lucy’s and Erza’s. There were also kids dressed up as the Rajinshu, and other members like Gajeel, Levy, and Elfman. There were even a few people dressed as members of other guilds including Sabretooth, Blue Pegasus, and Lamia Scale. Many of the adults running the shops were also dressed up, but in more normal costumes.

The real Fairy Tail members were having a blast inside their guild hall. Some were already out enjoying the festivities, of course, but the majority were partying hard alongside the citizens that joined them. Most of Team Natsu were present in the hall, save for the more depressing member of the group.

Zeref wasn’t putting the party off. He just felt very stupid in his costume and he was scared to show his face. Although, the longer he sat there, the more likely Natsu was to come barging in and drag him out to the guild, and that would be even more embarrassing than any costume. So reluctantly, Zeref stood up and entered the main area of the guild hall.

The hall was decorated head to toe with spooky decorations. Music was playing in the background as people danced and chatted. The dark mage scouted out the guild hall until his eyes fell upon his brother. He quickly made his way over to the group and tapped Natsu on the shoulder.

“Hey bro! Nice costume!” Natsu shouted out as soon as he saw him. The commotion caused other members to look over to Zeref as well. Many people commented on his costume while he looked at the costume’s others were wearing.

Natsu’s costume was, of course, of a dragon. It had red scales that lit up like fire under the lighting and had flames covering it. It only covered the body, so Natsu seemed to have someone well versed in makeup design his face so that it fit with the costume.

Lucy was dressed as one her celestial spirits, Aries. She had dyed her hair pink and had put it in the proper position (Courtesy of Cancer) and was wearing a fluffy wool dress. It looked amazing and clearly a lot of work was put into it.

Gray was wearing a partner’s costume with Juvia. **(I ship it okay!)** It was of a prince and princess with an icy theme. Juvia’s dress had snowflakes lining the edges of her dress while Gray’s suit had snowflakes going down the center as well as the sleeves. The main coloring of the outfits was royal blue with the snowflakes being a bright white color. Juvia had a snowflake tiara on while Gray had a similar looking crown.

Erza’s costume was of a ballet dancer. It had a Halloween theme to it, sporting the colors of orange and black, and stuck to her figure, other than the tutu, which poofed out around her. She had her hair tied up in a high bun, with jewels poking into her hair.

Finally, Wendy’s costume was of a fairy with a blue coloring to match her guild mark. The wings spread out behind her, making it look like she was ready to soar off into the air. She had her twin pigtails settled on her head, with cute fairy themed ties to keep them up.

Zeref found all his friend’s costumes wonderful and got happier when he realized they didn’t plan to make fun of his own costume. He continued to enjoy himself with the party’s activities until the sky was covered in a blanket of darkness.

By this time, children were coming up to the doors of Fairy Tail, where Mira would hand out candy to them. At some point, someone from the back had called out to Mira, asking if she could help them with something.

“Oh, alright, one moment!” Mira quickly looked around, needing to find a replacement while she was gone, when her eyes settled on Zeref. “Hey Zeref, would you mind taking over for me for a moment? Thanks!”

With no room for debate, as she quickly left for the back of the guild hall, Zeref stepped up to the door ready to hand out candy to children. He saw a group of kids approaching and grabbed a handful of candy.

“Trick or Treat!” The kids said as they held out their bowls of candy. Zeref dropped a few pieces into the bowls and waved goodbye to the kids as they continued to other houses. A few different groups arrived before Mira finally returned.

“Hey, how did it go?” Mira asked him as she returned to the door.

“It went fine. A few different groups of kids came up while you were gone.” He answered.

“That’s nice. Did you enjoy it?” Zeref paused to think about it, luckily getting an excuse to take longer because of another group of kids coming to the door, which Mira happily addressed.

“I suppose so.” He answered again as the kids left. The two chatted for a few minutes until Natsu pulled Zeref back into the main celebrations. Near the end of the night, the team, along with some other wizards, set up fireworks using their magic. It left the people in the city awed at the sight.

Zeref, who wasn’t helping set up the fireworks, laid back and enjoyed the sight himself. At the end of it he stood up and clapped, along with most of the other people enjoying the view and headed back inside where a few of the more responsible members were cleaning up the hall.

He stayed and helped them clean up for a bit, then headed off to bed. Before that, Mira pulled him into a guild picture, that all the members were in. The picture was placed into Fairy Tail’s scrap book. You could see in the picture, that Zeref had a faint smile, something that doesn’t happen very often.


	7. Can a Dragneel Give Romance Advice?

Zeref was having an… interesting day so far. First, he woke up to the entire guild going crazy about something that had to do with five legged puppies? Then, after he attempted to leave, someone pulled him back into the guild to participate in a brawl, although he had no idea who. To top off all the weird occurrences that day, Mavis just so happened to show up randomly, scaring the shit out of everyone and asked Zeref to go on a date with her to the new amusement park that was built recently.

To make everything worse, not only was Zeref so embarrassed to the point where Cana had to answer for him, but everyone started teasing him as soon as she disappeared again. Now he had to get prepared for a date, which he had no choice in the matter of attending, lest he make the first master cry.

All this led to his current predicament. Sitting down face to face with his brother.

“So… you need advice, right?” Natsu asked, while taking on the posture of a therapist.

“No, Natsu, what I need is a way to get out of this without making her cry! I’m not ready for this! What if I mess up? What if she doesn’t enjoy herself? What if I am the cause of her not enjoying herself?!” Zeref was ranting at this point, having absolutely no clue what he was going to do.

“Well, think about this. What makes her happy?” Natsu asked.

“Literally everything that isn’t death.” He replied, deadpanned.

“Okay, bad example. What makes you both happy?” He tried again.

“…Really?” Zeref hoped Natsu was joking. His brother couldn’t be that stupid, could he? Oh wait, he could.

“Okay, okay, another bad example! How about this, why do you think Mavis asked you out on a date?” Finally, the dragon slayer was getting somewhere.

“Um… I don’t know, maybe so that we can reconnect after so long?” Zeref tried.

“There ya go!” In reality, Natsu had no idea why on Earthland Mavis would want to suddenly ask Zeref out on a date, but Zeref didn’t have to know that, now did he?

“That still doesn’t explain to me how to do this!”

“Alright, alright, how about this. Just roll with it. I’ve been going on dates since I was ten. I winged it every time and look how that turned out!” Natsu started flexing his muscles like he had something to prove to passersby’s, even thought he was in his own house.

“You know I find that hard to believe.” Zeref doubted Natsu had ever gone on a date long enough to get to whatever destination they were headed.

“Oh, you wanna fight me on that?!” Natsu’s hand caught on fire, while Zeref started panicking, worried he would burn the house down, along with the clothes Gray had lent him for the date.

“Alright I’ll wing it!” Natsu smiled at this and let the flame in his hand go out. And by out he meant out the window to hit someone walking down the nearby path.

“OWW!”

“Oops… Whatever, you gotta get ready. Your supposed to meet Mavis outside the park gates in an hour.” Zeref was amazed at how easily Natsu just disregarded the safety of the random person. Zeref would normally either tell Natsu to go find them and ensure they are alright, or he would make sure their alright, but Zeref felt like he had more pressing concerns.

“Crap, your right! Be right back!” Zeref grabbed the clothing that was supposed to be meant for “Casual Dates” and rushed into the bathroom. Turns out, the clothing was a light blue polo shirt, along with a pair of black jeans. There were black running shoes to go with the outfit, that he slipped on after getting the other clothing articles on.

Zeref looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look that bad, actually. He quickly straitened out his hair, which was everywhere from him scratching it out of nervousness, although it would probably be back to its scratched-up state before he even made it to the park.

He exited the bathroom, looking for his brother to get his opinion, when he couldn’t find him anywhere. The door was left open, signaling that he must have left. Zeref sighed and picked up his jacket, rushing out the door. He wanted to stop by the flower shop first. Girls like flowers, right?

Luckily, from his team showing him around, he knew the location and didn’t have to look around too much until he spotted the store filled with colorful plants. He walked into the store and headed up to the counter.

“Umm… excuse me?” An old woman, who was most likely the owner of the shop, turned around from a file cabinet to look at the mage who acknowledged her.

“Ahh, how can I help you, young man?” Zeref wasn’t exactly young, but that didn’t matter.

“Well… you see, I have this date coming up in a few minutes, and I wanted to get some flowers to start it off.” The woman gained an even sweeter look on her face, which seemed impossible from her smile before.

“Haven’t done much in the dating department have you?” Zeref shook his head shyly. “Then let me put something together, just a moment.” The lady stood up, grabbing a flower bag. She quickly went around pulling out different flowers and arranging them in a beautiful bouquet. Soon, she walked back up to the counter.

“Here you are, honey.” She handed Zeref the bouquet with care.

“Alright, thank you. How much will this be?” Zeref started pulling out his wallet when the lady shook her head.

“No that’s quite alright dear, you don’t need to pay me a penny.”

“But-“

“No buts, you hear me. I love seeing the younger generation falling in love, and I’ll do whatever I can to help it along.” Once again, Zeref though about how he was probably a _much_ older generation than the woman in front of him, so was Mavis, but didn’t want the lady to think he didn’t appreciate it.

“Well, thanks again then.” Zeref let a smile fall upon his face. The old woman waved goodbye as he left the shop and headed towards the amusement park.

When he was nearly at the entrance, out of the corner of his eye, he saw her. Mavis was waiting quietly, dressed in a beautiful pink and orange flowy shirt. She had a matching skirt with it, and black tights to cover her legs, until just below the knee. As always, she was barefoot as she stood there looking around. She saw Zeref quickly and ran up to him.

“Hi Zeref! I’m glad you could come!” Mavis gave him a hug, but to do so she had to get up on her tip toes in order to reach him. Zeref held out the flowers to her. “Aww, thankyou Zeref, these look beautiful. I’ll keep them in a pocket dimension until I get home!” The flowers suddenly poofed out of existence. Mavis then grabbed Zeref’s hand and started dragging him over to the amusement park’s gate.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, why the sudden request to come here?” Zeref wasn’t sure on what the answer would be, but that’s the best excuse he could think of to begin a conversation at the moment.

“Well that’s easy silly! I wanted to spend time with you! I haven’t seen you at all since you woke up!” Mavis pouted a bit.

“Since I woke up?” Mavis turned her head a bit at this.

“Well… You’re cute when your sleeping!” Mavis turned back and smiled brightly. Zeref’s face went up in flames.

“That’s uh… slightly disturbing. Anyway, lets get into the park before we do anything else” Now it was Zeref’s turn to drag Mavis over to the gates. He tried to keep his face out of her view, in his attempt to hide his blush.

The two were purchasing their tickets to the park when Zeref saw a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye. He looked over, trying not to get Mavis’s attention, and saw Natsu in the line. He was wearing a fedora with sunglasses on and trying to look casual.

He kept sneaking glances towards the two and winked at Zeref once he knew he noticed them. Soon, they were finished with buying the tickets and gained access to the park. Zeref paid more attention to Natsu’s magic signature and noticed that he was following them.

“So, what should we do first?” Mavis questioned. Zeref gave her a shrug, so she started pulling him. “I guess we’ll find out as we go then.”

The two walked around for a while before they came across a large roller coaster. Mavis’s smile brightened even more, not that Zeref thought that was possible, and she started pulling harder on his wrist.

“Let’s go ride that!” She shouted as she pulled him along. Natsu gave him a thumbs up from where he was standing. Zeref just nodded at Mavis and kept up with her. They got in line for the ride and only had to wait a few minutes because of the line being short. As a worker directed them where to sit, Zeref noticed Natsu getting on around the back of the car.

With Natsu’s stupidity, it’s no surprise he got on the ride. He probably was so focused on Zeref and Mavis, that he didn’t even realized he followed them on. Zeref watched as a realization came on Natsu’s face as the dragon slayer was strapped in. It was pure horror. Of course, Zeref smiled at it.

“You excited Zeref?” Mavis questioned. She must have seen his smile, although didn’t know what it was for.

“Yes, I suppose. Although, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a roller coaster.” He said. When he was still cursed, he never really tried to go on any kind of fun expedition, worrying that some casualties may occur if he did.

“Well I can tell you this much, there’re awesome!” She was jumping up and down in her seat now, waiting for the ride to start.

“So, you’ve been on one before?” Zeref asked. She nodded happily as the ride booted up. They began moving as Zeref looked back and saw Natsu beginning to gag. Unluckily for Natsu, the workers took no notice of this and didn’t bother to stop the ride and take him off.

The two stayed silent as they rode up the hill. The beginning of the coaster went very high, about the height of the tip of the guild hall and got extremely steep as it went down. They held on tight as their car went over and faced the steep hill until the last car, holding Natsu, went over.

‘ _Mavis, you lied to me. This isn’t awesome’_

All the passengers quickly went speeding down. Screaming could be heard all around them, some of joy and some of fear. Mavis was enjoying herself very much, even going so far as to put her hands up with some of the other, braver riders. Zeref decided to keep his hold tight and just so happened to be more on the side of the scared, terrified, slowly crumbling on the inside from fear of death by coaster, people.

The ride slowed down a lot after they reached the bottom of the initial hill, but it wasn’t slow enough for Zeref’s liking. The cars went through twists and turns as it weaved through smaller hills and loops. After what felt like an hour, but was really only a few minutes, the ride came to a stop.

Some workers went up and down taking off the safety straps. Zeref noticed Natsu wobble off and speed away from the ride like his life depended on it. To be honest, Zeref wasn’t opposed to the idea of running away from that death trap. He had other reasons than Natsu of course.

He followed Mavis out of the car and down the exit ramp.

“Wasn’t that fun?” Mavis asked.

“Well…” Zeref panicked for a moment. He didn’t want to upset her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Natsu nod his head repeatedly towards him. “It was great!” He finally said.

“Awesome! There’s this other one I was thinking of going on. Apparently its even faster!” Zeref paled at this. He had a long day ahead of him. Also, he was going to murder Natsu.

At some point throughout the day, he saw a booth with a… five-legged puppy… so _that’s_ what the guild was fussing over earlier.

**_4 hours later_ **

“Wow, that was amazing!” The two had recently gotten off another high-speed ride, this time one that spins in circles and uses gravity to keep you from falling out.

“Yes… it was amazing.” Zeref was feeling like he was going to die. Mavis had been dragging him around all day and pulling him onto crazy rides. She had no idea of Zeref’s real opinion on them, though. Natsu had been following the two all day, giving bits of advice to Zeref while Mavis wasn’t looking.

“The parks going to close soon. We have time for one more ride!” Mavis grabbed his wrist for the trillionth time that day and started pulling him.

‘ _Can my life just end now?’_ Zeref thought. He seemed to have been spared though when she stopped at one of the largest rides at the entire park. The Ferris wheel.

“I wanted to save this one for last.” Mavis said. She was looking up at it in awe. The sheer size of it amazed her. “Of all the rides I’ve been on, I haven’t ever stepped foot on this.”

Zeref was surprised at that. He figured Mavis had been on all these rides before, multiple times. To hear that she had never gone on this one was… shocking. She clearly loved the look of the ride, so why hadn’t she…?

“If you’re wondering why I haven’t been on this before, it’s because I wanted to wait, to be honest. The roller coasters and high-speed rides are exhilarating and keep your adrenaline flowing, but this…” Zeref was surprised by what Mavis was saying. He thought it was sweet, but he wondered why she would want to ride it now of all times.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why ride it now of all times?” Zeref questioned.

“Well, everything is more enjoyable when you’re with someone.” Mavis looked down at the ground. The line for the Ferris wheel moved forward. “I never got the chance to ride it with anyone, but now… I have you” She looked up at Zeref and he saw the tears in her eyes. He gave her a hug as they moved forward again.

They stood in silence as they waited in the line. Natsu was hinting at Zeref to get the conversation going again, but the dark mage stayed silent. Soon, it was their turn to get in one of the cars. It was enclosed but had a balcony on the opposite side. It had a railing, of course. The worker who sat them started speaking.

“Remember, the ride lasts for about ten minutes. If you wish to go out on the balcony, make sure you be careful not to fall off. It’s a long drop.” The worker left and closed the doors on his side. The ride soon began moving.

“I wonder why the ride lasts so long” Mavis said. Zeref remembered Natsu saying that he should try to impress Mavis. This was his chance.

“Perhaps it’s because they use magic to keep the wheel going. Maybe it feels like ten minutes for us but is actually only a minute outside.” Zeref felt confident in that idea. He had known multiple wizards in the past that used time altering magic.

“That’s a possible reason. Say, would you like to go out on the balcony?” Zeref wasn’t sure about this. Natsu wasn’t here to help him, since he was way down on the ground at the moment. He would have to figure things out himself right now.

“Uh… Sure” Zeref stood out of his seat, pausing a moment to catch his balance. He nearly toppled over from the movement of the car. He had a spur of the moment idea, remembering different scenes in books he has read.

He moved to help Mavis out of her seat, but she started getting up before he could get there and went toppling onto him.

“Oh, sorry!” Mavis shouted quickly. She slowly sat up and grabbed the inside railing.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it.” Zeref followed her actions and stood up. “Let’s head out to the balcony now, shall we?” He tried to take her hand, another thing he read about before. She nodded and gladly accepted it.

He led her out to the balcony, where the wind softly blew their hair, and gazed upon the sunset. It was the perfect time to be this high up, and it gave the two the perfect view. They held each other as they watched it go down.

“I guess you were right.” Mavis’s words knocked Zeref back into reality. She pointed downwards where they could see people moving very slowly. “Time certainly seems to move slower while we’re up here.”

“I suppose it does.” Zeref pulled Mavis a little closer. Time seemed to stop entirely for a moment. The two looked into each other’s eyes as the sun casted rays of dimming light on them. Slowly, they moved closer and closer together until their lips locked.

To Zeref, it felt like the kiss had lasted an eternity. Eventually, they pulled apart, albeit reluctantly, so they could catch their breaths. They continued to hold each other until a notice came from a nearby speaker.

“Could you please return to the inside of the car, you will be escorted off momentarily.” They let go of each other and made their way into the car, in silence. Zeref decided to use the few minutes they still had to talk.

“So… What now?” He asked.

“I… I don’t know, to be honest.” Mavis held her hands in her lap. The two were sitting across from each other, both blushing now that the event had caught up to them. “I suppose we’ll just have to find out, I guess.”

Soon, the ride stopped entirely, and a worker helped them off the car. An announcement played throughout the park, informing everyone that it was closing time, and signaling all costumers to head towards the exit. They held hands shyly as they made their way out. Along the way out, Zeref saw Natsu donning a smug look.

The sun had set entirely by now, and the stars were out in full. Zeref didn’t know what to do now, and looked over to where Natsu was standing, far away of course as to not draw attention. Natsu made a motion with his hand. He kept moving his hand towards his mouth and making a chewing motion. It took a minute, but Zeref got what he was trying to say.

“So… Do you want to… I don’t know, get dinner?” He tried asking. She simply replied with a nod and smiled at him.

“Actually, I know the perfect place we can go.” She said. She led him down the streets of Magnolia to a small restaurant by the shore. It was a nice, family owned place. An old woman was out front welcoming and seating any customers. “What do you think?” She asked.

“It seems nice.” He replied as they walked towards the woman standing out front. Zeref could sense Natsu nearby, most likely waiting for them so be seated before he came up. The two made it to the woman’s small stand.

“Why hello there Mavis. For two this time, I presume?” She asked.

“Yes, and outside by the water like usual, if its available.” Mavis answered. It seemed like she had been here before, judging by her relationship with the woman. Zeref took the time they were being seated to catch a glace at her name tag. It read Nokra.

“I’ll just leave the menus with you and come back in a moment. For now, can I get you two anything to drink?”

“Just water please.” They both said at the same time. Nokra nodded and made her way to the kitchen in the back. The two took their time to look at the menus. **(I’m going to say Mavis can eat/drink in this, or it would be a little difficult to write this part)**

As he was looking through his menu, Zeref glanced back at Natsu who had been sat down. He was hiding behind his menu as he watched the two and winked at Zeref. The mage just looked back and sighed. He wasn’t sure if Natsu knew about the kiss, but chances are, he did, and he would most certainly make fun of him about it.

“So, have you two decided?” Nokra had come back with their waters and held up a note pad. The two gave their respective orders, as she jotted them down. She left soon after to input them in as the two sitting at the table gave idle chatter. Natsu kept giving hits of what to say to Zeref as the two waited for their food.

Sometime later, Nokra returned with two plates in hand and set them down in front of them. Zeref used the fact that he was eating to stay silent and think about the events that day. Never in his life did he expect to end up kissing Mavis during this outing.

They both stayed silent for most of the meal, save for the occasional checking in from Nokra. The two admired the scenery from where they sat. The ocean was nearly right next to them. They could also see the top of the guild hall from where they sat. It was beautiful, really.

After they finished eating, they declined dessert and asked for the bill. Zeref payed the whole thing, Mavis arguing about it, of course. They soon departed the restaurant after waving goodbye to Nokra, and Mavis heading in the back for a moment to say goodbye to her husband, who ran the kitchen.

“Would you like me to walk you home?” Zeref offered after Natsu had made a walking motion.

“Sure!” Mavis smiled at him as they walked towards her house. It was a small cottage stationed near the woods. It wasn’t close to Natsu’s house, but it wasn’t far either. They made it there quickly, and Zeref walked her up to the door.

“So… this was nice.” Zeref said. He wasn’t sure how you were supposed to say goodbye after a date.

“It was… but I do have one question.” Zeref looked up at her, signaling her to continue. “Why was Natsu following us all day?” Zeref paled at this question.

“…” Mavis put her hands on her hips after a few seconds. She looked at him with a half glare, half smile.

Natsu started whisper-shouting to Zeref, Mavis easily being able to hear. “Bail, bail, bail!”

That’s just what Zeref did.

He shouted goodbye and took off for his life. Mavis watched him leave with a smile. She wasn’t angry. In fact, she though it was cute. Natsu took off after his brother. Zeref eventually made it to Natsu’s house, where he immediately grabbed his normal clothes and changed. He walked out of the bathroom to see Natsu preparing the couch for him.

“So, I know I was there, but how did it go?” Natsu asked. He seemed genuinely curious.

“I’m not sure. You being obvious about following us certainly didn’t help. Overall, I don’t think it went too poorly.” Natsu shied away a bit from that remark. He could feel the small bit of anger Zeref still had about that. “Anyway, I’ll let you off the hook. I’m going to bed. Goodnight.” Zeref proceeded to flop down on the couch, exhaustion finally catching up to him.

**_The Next Morning_ **

Zeref woke up feeling great that morning. Last night’s events circling through his mind. He mostly though about the kiss they shared. He noticed Natsu stumble in from outside, Happy flying around him.

“Hey bro guess what!” Natsu said as Zeref started to get up and leave.

“What is it?” Zeref asked as he opened the door to Natsu’s house, ready to head back to the guild and attempt to answer all of his guildmate’s questions.

“Well imagine this! Lucy asked me out on a date earlier today! Funny timing, right?” Zeref nodded at this. The timing was interesting to say the least.

“That’s, nice. And your point was?” Zeref asked.

“Well… I’ve been thinking about it all morning, but I never could really come up with an answer. I was wondering what a date was, exactly.” Zeref’s eye twitched as his face grew an angered expression. A bit of smoke was coming out of his ears as well. He slammed the door shut and huffed away before he tried to strangle Natsu, not that he didn’t want to.

“What’d I say?” Natsu asked to Happy as stomping slowly faded out in the background.


	8. Don't Prank a Dragon Slayer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mini chapter

Zeref was getting tired of Natsu always making fun of him. So, like anyone would do, he confronted Natsu about it. Yeah, no. Revenge time.

Everything was set up perfectly. Zeref was waiting in the bushes outside Natsu’s house, watching the trap he set up for Natsu. While waiting, he recalled what Lucy had told him earlier.

_“Lucy, may I ask you something?” Zeref asked._

_“You just did.” She said with a small giggle._

_“You know what I mean!” Zeref said frustrated. Not just from Lucy, but form what happened earlier that day._

_“Yeah, I know. Anyway, what did you want to ask me?”_

_“Well… I’ve wanted Natsu to stop with all his pranking and jokes, so I thought, why not give him a taste of his own medicine? I was wondering if you had any ideas for that?”_

_“Hehehe, well it just so happens that I do, my kind sir.” She said with a mischievous smile._

_“Would you mind informing me?” Zeref took on a mischievous smile as well, excited for what the celestial mage had planned._

_“Well, I know for a fact that Natsu will, literally, fall for a pit fall trap.” Zeref, not realizing how stupid it is, accepted the idea and ran out of the guild hall to set it up while Natsu was out._

“And now, my dear brother, who so kindly woke me up to an air horn this morning, will fall into a hole, filled with a few feet of water, and a lovely raft.” Zeref’s smile hadn’t faltered since his talk with Lucy earlier.

Soon, he heard chatter coming his way. Natsu, and Happy, the latter flying, were walking up to the house. Zeref saw Natsu pause for a moment and say something to Happy. Then he sniffed the air.

_“Shit! I forgot about his nose!”_

Natsu started running right in Zeref’s direction, not even going near the trap he had set up.

“Hey Zeref! What are you doing all the way over here?” Natsu asked.

“U-uh, nothing, no, nope, nothing at all.” Zeref was scared about Natsu finding out. He tried his best to remain calm, but ultimately failing.

“Okay, then?” Natsu said with a confused face. “Anyway, lets go inside and grab some grub!”

Natsu started running towards the house, taking big leaps. He ended up completely jumping over the trap Zeref had set up. Unfortunately, Zeref, in his attempt to keep up with the dragon slayer, completely forgot about the trap he had made. Not taking big steps in the slightest, Zeref walked right onto the coverup he had made.

“AH!” Zeref shouted as he fell. What’s worse? He didn’t even hit the raft! A big splash could be heard, causing Natsu and Happy to turn around.

“Uh, Zeref?” Natsu peered over the edge, to see his brother chest deep in water.

“Um… Need some help?” Natsu asked with a giggle.

A few minutes later, Zeref was held up in Natsu’s bathroom, attempting to dry himself off, while his brother, along with Happy, were laughing their asses off ever since Zeref told them about the trap he had set up. The black mage swore to never, EVER, try to prank Natsu again. The ricochet wasn’t worth it.


End file.
